PC manufacturer and direct seller Dell has a page up for the Xbox One, promising some unique features on the console Microsoft itself does not confirm on their own site. Dell’s page claims that Windows 8 apps will all run on Xbox One. You can see the said screenshot below.
Now at 100,000 apps and rising, Windows 8 apps are usable in both Windows RT and Windows 8. It is not entirely unclear if Windows Phone apps are exactly the same as Windows 8 apps, but it would not be a stretch of the imagination if they have a common framework. It is true that the Windows ecosystem works in such a way that it autosyncs certain apps and data across phones, tablets, computers, and even the Xbox 360 right now. Many believe the same is true of the Xbox One, particularly on its Windows 8 virtualization.
Since the Xbox One announcement, this has actually been the subject of wild speculation by the tech press for a while. Many tech writers expected Microsoft to show their hand during their Build conference June of this year. They did not quite do that, but developer Steven Guggenheim did drop heavy hints that the two are intimately connected. Guggenheim demonstrated a web application running on Xbox One, and explained that it had its own xbox.js library. He further explained that developers interested in making Xbox One apps should start by making Windows 8 applications.
Truth be told, Dell may be ‘revealing’ more here than they are actually qualified, or informed enough, to reveal. While it’s certainly true that Dell has close to ties to Microsoft, the Redmond based company has simply not acted enough to confirm or quell said speculation. It is entirely possible that Microsoft is still weighing out their options, with Windows 8 still very, very young and Xbox One yet to release to the market.
So, while I personally take this screenshot with a grain of salt, it would really be up to Microsoft to confirm or dispel it completely. At the very least, we can expect the current Xbox apps in Windows 8 and RT, namely,Video, Music, Games, and Smartglass, would transition over to Xbox One, if not souped up.
UPDATE: A Microsoft spokesperson has contacted AllThingsD to explain that the suggestion that all Windows 8 apps will run on Xbox One is just not true. I suspect for many apps, compatibility is a simple matter of adding xbox.js, but either way, this is the end of that story.
Source: Dell
